A Relative Mistake
by lola.c.prior
Summary: Dr. McAfferty always wanted his family to stay on campus, away from harm. But once his daughter, a former Cherub agent, is killed, his granddaughter, Lindsey has no choice but to become an agent. Takes Place after Divine Madness. Includes character OC's, rated T for occasionally swearing and whatnot. Enjoy! R&R!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Robert Muchamore does not use POVs, so I will not...unless requested.**

* * *

Lindsey awoke to her brother screaming. She desperately needed the sleep, but the 11 year-old is a super light sleeper, so she forced herself out of bed.

"Drake! Shut up! I need my beauty sleep!" She tried looking for him, but he was nowhere.

"Calm down Drake. It's okay; daddy _is_ gone, but it's not your fault," their mother said soothingly. Their dad had been in the Royal Air Force and had been trained at Cherub, but Penelope could not tell her kids that.

"Mum? What's happening to Drake?"

She sighed, "Nightmares."

"Again?"

"Yes. It's happening so frequently. Maybe I should send him to the counselors that I work with."

Just then, Drake murmured something.

Their mum's head jerked towards the frightened boy, "Drake? What was that?"

"He does it all the time mum. It's honestly no biggy." Although, sometimes Lindsey wished that she had a normal family.

"Linds, don't talk that way. Drake has been talking about duddy, who he rarely even saw. Maybe the doctors at Cherub could run some tests on him."

Lindsey had given up on looking for Cherub. When she asked about it, her mum told her that it was a boarding school for troubled kids, and when Lindsey looked it up on Google, the only thing that she had learned was the translation for 'angel' in Spanish.

"Duddy was a piwot."

Their mother nodded.

"Duddy deserved to wive."

Penelope nodded again. Her husband did deserve to live. His plane had been shot down and crashed in a training exercise.

"Linds, go get ready for school."

Lindsey nodded then went to put on her uniform. She combed her strawberry-blonde hair then put on eyeshadow. She sighed, then put her lunch in her bag then went off to school.

* * *

"Hey, Lindsey!"

Lindsey turned around to see her best friend, Meg run up to her.

"Oh, hey Megs. What's that in your hand?"

"I'm glad you asked. Invitations to my sleepover."

Meg handed her one.

"Sweet, Megs. Thanks. When is it?"

"Well, open it up."

Lindsey shrugged then opened up the invitation. "Tomorrow night at 5 pm. Please bring a sleeping bag, makeup, and movie."

Megs was so excited, "It would have gone out last week, but mum needed time to plan everything. We're gonna watch a movie, and play truth or dare. Oh, and we're also gonna do makeovers!"

"Cool. Who else is invited?"

"Well, you, Veronica, Tori, and Maddie. Oh, and Lulu, my godmother, who's great with girls our age."

Lindsey nodded, "Well, see you in class."

"Yeah. Good thing it's Friday."

* * *

"Mum? Mum, I'm home!" Lindsey looked around the house, but couldn't find her anywhere. Hm, she should be home, since she takes Fridays off, Lindsey thought to herself. "Wait a minute, is something burning?" She looked in the oven, but there was nothing in it. Then she saw her mom passed out. Drake was crying next to her. Lindsey rushed over.

"Fwames." Drake said.

Lindsey gasped, "Drake, listen to me. Pick up mum's leg. I'll take her arms. We need to drag her out."

Drake turned around.

"Drake get back here!"

He started running up the stairs toward his room.

"Oh, screw it." Lindsey said. She ran up to get him, coughing through the smoke of the fire. She picked him up along with his favorite toy.

"Drake, listen to me. Run outside and stay out there."

"Mum!" his eyes were watering.

"I know, Drake. I'll take care of it."

Drake nodded then ran outside.

"Mum? I'm gonna drag you outside. "

Her mum nodded. Lindsey got to the door when she felt her mum stop breathing.

"Mum!"

Her mother gulped. "Phone. I love you and Drake." Then her eyes closed. Lindsey started to cry, but realized that she would have to toughen up for Drake. She found her mum's phone in her pocket, then murmured _thank you_.She kissed her mum's cheek then ran to Drake.

"Drake! What happened in there?"

"Mum?"

"She's in a safe place now."

"Where's that?"

"Heaven."

Drake wrapped his arms around her legs. Lindsey reached down to hug him, but he ran. Towards a coming car.

"Drake!" she called.

The driver ran out. Her high heels made a clapping noise against the pavement of the road.

"I'm so so sorry! I have red cross training! I can help this boy!" She smoothed her pant suit down and started doing a form of CPR.

Lindsey held back tears and held Drake's hand.

"I'm so so sorry! I swear to god I didn't even see him!"

Lindsey replied stiffly, "It's fine."

"No it's not! I hit a kid with a car! How 'm I supposed to feel?!"

Lindsey shrugged. The woman hugged her.

"Now, where can I contact your parents?"

Lindsey pointed at her mom. "Fire. Our dad died four years ago."

"Oh my god! What can I do?"

"Can you call 999 for Drake?"

"Your little brother? Of course!"

Lindsey smiled at her generosity. She then dialed the 'in case of emergency' number on her mum's phone.

* * *

Dr. McAfferty smiled. His job of the hour was giving Lauren Adams a black shirt. He always enjoyed doing this.

"Thank you sir." she said shakily, even though she got the news a week ago in Australia. Then she left.

Mac settled back into his leather chair. He heard the phone ring, but he let the receptionist get it.

"Unicorn Tyre Repair. How can I help you?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I must have the wrong number. You see my mum and brother are both passed out and so I just pressed the emergency number on my mum's phone. I mean it must be the boarding school Cherub, that mum's always talking about. You see, she works there and-"

"Calm down. I may be able to help."

Once Mac heard this, he decided to listen in on the conversation._ I knew that Penelope should have lived on Cherub campus. Something was bound to happen to her!_ he thought to himself.


	2. Chapter 2

Lindsey held back another flow of tears once she gave the nice man her address. He said that a car would be there in an hour. She looked back on her house. How could this happen so quickly? She should be excited about Meg's sleepover, not worrying about Drake's and mum's life. She drew in a shaky breath and then an ambulance and a fire engine arrived. The lady who gave Drake CPR signed a paper, hugged Lindsey wishing her the best, then left.

Lindsey crossed her arms and continued to look at her mum. She wiped tears off her face, and started to hyperventilate. A paramedic walked past her with a body bag to take her mum. _She had been dead for a few minutes because of the smoke_, they had said. Lindsey looked at the house a little bit more. The firefighters asked her to get out of the way, but she couldn't ear anything. Lindsey looked back to Drake. She sniffled, and smiled, possibly for the last time in a while, at how Drake had died with his favorite toy.

Then Lindsey's world went black.

* * *

Lindsey woke to an argument between the paramedics and Dr. McAfferty. She rolled her eyes and decided to look around at her surroundings. She was on a gurney in a paramedic's truck.

"Where's mum? Where's Drake?" she finally said. Then she coughed raspily.

Dr. McAfferty rushed to her side. "Oh, good. You're awake. Now I can take you home."

Lindsey pointed to the window, "Home," she croaked, then cleared her throat.

Then the paramedic that Mac had talked to stepped in, "Anyways, you can't take her home. You may have that special I.D. with you, but that doesn't verify your guardianship over her."

Mac wiped sweat off his forehead. He was desperate to take home his granddaughter. "Do you see my name, Dr. Terrance McAfferty. And her name is Lindsey McAfferty. Do you see the resemblance?"

The paramedic turned to Lindsey, "Well, do you know this man?"

She shrugged, "Well I did speak to a guy who mentioned working for a doctor McAfferty."

Mac argued with the paramedic for another minute until he finally won. Then he signed a few papers and was given Lindsey's prescription for stress. Lndsey took a deep breath and looked back at her old house, which was now burnt down partially. She wiped away a few tears, not wanting Dr. McAfferty to see her in pain. Then she turned away and said, "Let's go."

Mac nodded unsure of what to do. He too was dabbing his eyes. Then he walked towards the car. Arif, the driver was eating M&M's when he saw Mac walk towards the car, with a hand on a girl's shoulder. Her arms were crossed and he looked like a smaller version of Penelope. Arif remembered hearing the news. He was teaching some red shirts karate, and he was yelling at a kid who had a bad mouth. Arif smiled at that thought. He just got a job at Cherub, and has been dishing out so many punishments since. But when he was giving a kid 20 laps, the intercom went off. It had said that Dr. McAfferty's granddaughter had called Cherub, panicked. Her mother and brother were passed out. Arif couldn't believe it. Penelope, Mac's daughter, who embraced the kids and insisted that they call her 'Penelope.' She chewed cinnamon gum and was one of the nicest handlers. She had insisted that her kids not go to Cherub, but it was too late now. Arif could see the resemblance between her and the girl in front of her. Arif chewed and swallowed. He shoved the M&M's into his pocket and pushed his sunglasses up his nose. He rolled up the window and got out of the car, greeting Mac and the girl. She looked at him suspiciously and got into the shotgun. Mac sighed and told her to get into the backseat. She stiffened, then nodded, unsure of what else to do. Mac smiled and started talking to the girl, explaining who he was. She rolled her eyes and looked out the window. After a few minutes, Mac whispered 'windows' to me. I nodded and pressed a button. The windows turned dark in response. The girl sighed again.

"Lindsey, why don't you tell me how the fire started," Mac finally said.

"Well, I got back from school and I smelled burning. Then I saw mum passed out and Drake was crying. He didn't say anything. But I do know that Drake was at daycare and mum went to Cherub for a few hours, and she can be forgetful. Like sometimes she leaves the candles that help her with stress on and sometimes she leaves the oven on."

Mac nodded. Penelope was never one to keep secrets from her family, but still, he was curious, "What all did she tell you about Cherub?"

"Well, that it's a boarding school. Once when I was young, she left me in her office for a few minutes and someone came in and picked me up."

Mac nodded, "Yes, most likely Meryl Spencer. You'll meet her later. She worked with your mum."

The car came to a stop. Lindsey got out and looked around. "Where are we?" she said in wonder. She couldn't believe it. There were about 20 kids playing a game of football, and a few more running laps. She wanted to run in to play. Mac put his hand on her shoulder.

"Quite nice, isn't it?"

Lindsey nodded. She was always one to be athletic. She played in two football clubs, and enjoyed them to the fullest.

"Go on, Arif will introduce you to them."

Arif nodded and swallowed a handful of M&M's. He started walking towards the field and Lindsey reluctantly followed. Mac smiled then left to go work out the paperwork for Lindsey. Even if it was Meryl's job, he still wanted to do it.

* * *

Arif blew the whistle. Most of the kids stopped abruptly, but some didn't. One scored a shot on a goalie who paused to look at Arif.

"You there!"

The kid turned around. "Me?"

"Yes you! 20 laps, now!"

"But sir,"

"Don't argue with me!"

"Shit."

"30 laps!"

"What'd I do?"

"Go!"

Lindsey looked taken back.

"Hey, it's okay." Arif told her. He seemed nice towards her; it was his duty. But Lindsey wasn't so sure. He did make a kid run 30 laps on what looked like a half mile track. _Why not get on his good side?_ she thought. So she smiled back at him uneasily.

"Guys! This is Lindsey McAfferty!"

"Is it true that Penelope's dead?" Some kid asked.

"Yes! Didn't you hear the intercom?!" Arif shouted back.

The kids shrunk back and bickered among themselves.

"Guys! Listen up! This is Penelope's daughter, so respect her! Now play ball!"

Arif sat down in the grass and watched as Lindsey was given a team and the rest of the team was trying to go easy on her, though a few boys looked like they were trying to impress her. But she charged through everyone and scored a point. Then everyone upped their game and she still was weaving through the crowd, scoring plays. Everyone looked amazed at her, but Arif just smiled, along with Lindsey.


End file.
